Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-03-05

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Weather Forecast-Tuesday

[02] Greece-Iran-IRNA news agency-Meetings

[03] Drama-Balkan Ecologists-Conference

[04] Karamanlis-Prodi-Meeting

[05] Derivatives Market-Close

[06] Greece - Austria - Kosovo

[01] Weather Forecast-Tuesday

Partly cloudy weather will prevail throughout Greece on Tuesday with scattered showers in Macedonia, Thrace and the islands of the north and east of the Aegean.

Winds will be south-southwesterly, moderate to strong.

In the north, temperatures will range from 6C to 18C; on the rest of the mainland and the Ionian from 9C to 23C; and in the Aegean islands from 13C to 21C.

Partly cloudy with the possibility of rain in the evening in Athens, with temperatures between 11C and 21C. Similar weather in Thessaloniki, with temperatures from 7C to 17C.

[02] Greece-Iran-IRNA news agency-Meetings

An Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) delegation, which arrived in Athens on Sunday at the invitation of the Athens News Agency (ANA), met on Monday with Press and Mass Media Minister Dimitris Reppas and the leadership of the Athens Journalists Union (ESHEA).

The delegation headed by IRNA President Fereydoun Verdinejad also includes General International News and Cooperation Director Shapour Jomeh-Farsangi and the Director of International Relations Touraj Shiralilou.

The IRNA delegation met with ESHEA President Nikos Kiaos, Vice-President N. Karantinos and General Secretary M. Mathioudakis and later with Reppas.

Reppas, during the meeting, underlined the importance of relations between Greece and Iran, one of the largest countries in the region, the particular relations which are developing in the economic sector between Greece, Iran and Armenia and the necessity for these relations to be extended to the sector of the exchange of news and information.

Reppas referred to Greece's interest, but also that of the European Union, in Iran, and stressed that the cooperation between IRNA and the ANA will help in the better understanding of developments in Iran and to the mutual briefing of both countries.

During the IRNA-ESHEA meeting, decision was reached for strengthening relations between the journalists of the two countries, the exchange of delegations and the organisation of events for the promotion of common professional objectives.

The IRNA president referred to the persecutions faced by members of the news agency by the judicial authorities and underlined the will of the journalists to continue their efforts for the objective briefing of the people of Iran.

IRNA is discussing with the ANA the development of their relations for the exchange of views and photographs, as well as technical know-how.

[03] Drama-Balkan Ecologists-Conference

A Balkan conference of ecological and environmental organisations held in Drama, northern Greece, agreed to constant and continuous cooperation between all organisations involved in the sector to enable the handling of common ecological and environmental problems facing the Balkan peninsula.

All speakers reached the conclusion that the ecological crisis has exceeded its limits, particularly in the Balkans, and it was assessed that a spirit of cooperation and mutual understanding was necessary to enable all problems to be handled radically and for viable development to be secured in Balkan countries.

The Balkan conference was attended by Greece, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, FYROM, Montenegro, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey and Serbia.

[04] Karamanlis-Prodi-Meeting

Main opposition New Democracy (ND) party leader Costas Karamanlis will visit Brussels on Tuesday and on Wednesday he will be having a working lunch with the European Commission President Romano Prodi.

Karamanlis, who is Vice-President of the European Peoples' Party (EPP), will raise ND's vision for the prospects of institutional changes in the European Union following the EU Nice summit and the course for the EU's enlargement.

Karamanlis will also discuss with Prodi the course of the proposal for the creation of a unified European service for the confrontation of natural disasters, the recent developments in the western Balkans and the consequences of Turkey's economic crisis.

Karamanlis will also speak at the European Parliament, at the conference of the EPP's Parliamentary Group, on the 20th anniversary of Greece's accession to the then European Economic Community.

[05] Derivatives Market-Close

Equity futures traded on the Athens Derivatives Exchange finished higher on Monday, in line with the bourse indices on which they are based, traders said.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index closed 0.42 percent up, and the FTSE/ASE 40 ended 0.88 percent higher.

Turnover was 20.241 million euros on contracts traded, the dealers said.

[06] Greece - Austria - Kosovo

VIENNA (ANA) Trilateral cooperation between Austria, Greece and Italy in the strife-torn Balkans to facilitate faster reforms and the prospect of EU inclusion dominated talks here between visiting Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou and Austrias leadership.

Papandreou arrived in the Austrian capital for a three-day visit amid the latest skirmishes between Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) forces and ethnic Albanian guerillas on the Kosovo-FYROM frontier and ever-growing concerns about the fragile state of stability in the southern Balkans.

Among others, the Greek FM reiterated that Balkan leaders as well as NATO, EU and OECD member-states have categorically warned that they will not allow a proliferation of violence, whereas any problems should be resolved through peaceful means. Papandreou also pointed to what he called the increasing polarisation between the Slavic-speaking and Albanian-speaking residents of FYROM and southern Serbia, stressing that this type of polarisation aims at destabilizing the entire region.

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